Comics to Remember: The Cat #1

When I was a little girl picking through the books on the comic rack for something new, I'd snatch up anything I saw featuring a female hero. I bought the original Spider-woman in 1978, all 50 issues. I bought the first Ms. Marvel title in 1977, all 23 issues. (Granted that I was a teenager then, not really a little girl anymore.)

But in 1972 I was ten years old, not nearly as focused in my comic-buying, and I bought the first issue of The Cat. Since I was also not nearly as organized in my comic-collecting, this comic disappeared somewhere along the line, but I remember it well. (Thus the title "Comics to Remember.") Well, memory is fallible, so I may well be off on some of the details, but the book impressed me a great deal.

Here's the story: Greer Nelson is a hopefully-not-too-typical young woman of the early 70s. She's far from a feminist, barely complaining at all when her fiance Bill refuses to let her drive her own car (a gift from her father) because he'd feel silly in the passenger seat. She and Bill (who wasn't all that bad of a guy, just a heavy-duty chauvinist--of course, ten-year-old Brainfreeze thought he was a big jerk, but looking back I don't think that was the intent) marry, and Greer begins her life as a full-time housewife, ready for the anticipated happy-ever-after.

Unfortunately, Bill is a police officer, a risky profession, and he's killed in the line of duty. Greer is heartbroken, of course, but also has no idea what to do next--I don't think she gave much thought to her future other than as a wife (and eventually mother, presumably) and now that was over. She found employment as a lab assistant to Dr. JoAnne Tumulo (yes, I had to look up the name online!), who provided her with powers and a nifty costume. After Tumulo herself was (apparently) killed, Greer took on the identity of The Cat and started doing battle against a series of mid-level villains. Since The Cat only ran four issues, this stage of her career didn't last as long as it might have*, but did she ever capture the imagination of a ten-year-old girl! I read that comic until it was falling apart.

Although I liked both Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman very much, neither book grabbed me in the same way that The Cat did. Part of this probably had to do with the difference between a ten-year-old and a teenager. And part of that had to do with the strong female focus of the book--Greer was a woman. The doctor who gave her her powers was a woman. The book's author (Linda Fite) was a woman. The book's artist (Marie Severin) was a woman. A ten-year-old girl who has only ever seen men's names on that first page notices these things.

I liked Greer as The Cat, honestly, better than I liked her as Tigra. (And I liked Tigra, don't get me wrong there!) With the transformation she traded some of her earnestness for Tigra's protective humor, her practicality for an exotic look. (Tigra does seem to be a hard character for writers to get a handle on--her portrayal in West Coast Avengers was one of the few things I really didn't care for in that series.) And it may be that if her series had gone on longer, or if she'd stayed The Cat longer before becoming Tigra, I wouldn't have quite such fond memories of her--but she didn't, and I do. I think there may also have been the element of watching this helpless, childlike person pull herself up and become strong and self-sufficient--that's something a ten-year-old can both admire and relate to.

*Eventually Greer was transformed (somehow) into Tigra, and eventually her costume made its way to Patsy Walker, who wore it for a time as Hellcat.